Elizabeth II by Robert Hardman

Elizabeth II by Robert Hardman

‘Sensational’ – Daily Mail

Published for her centenary, Elizabeth II is a brilliant new portrait of the late Queen, full of fresh revelations. From the Sunday Times number one bestselling author of Charles III, it is the essential story of her life and record-breaking reign.

Biographer and royal commentator Robert Hardman has had unique access to the world of the late Queen – including family, staff, advisers and even the last state visitor of her record-breaking reign, President Donald Trump himself.

As daughter, wife, mother and sovereign, Elizabeth lived fascinating parallel lives, both in private and in public. But she remained something of a mystery – beloved, even revered, modest yet daunting, naturally shy but globally recognizable, inscrutable and also authentic. She was grand but so familiar that we felt we knew her. Yet we would always be left asking the same question: ‘What’s she really like?’

The only biographer to have interviewed all the senior members of the Royal Family, some of them several times, no one has written more authoritatively on Queen Elizabeth II than Robert Hardman. Here he has crafted a gripping story of drama, devotion, triumph, tragedy, humour and conflict; of an outwardly stoical, inwardly complex woman whose love of family, love of country and duty to the Crown might have pulled her in different directions but never derailed her; a global stateswoman who wielded her great authority with charm and understatement.

Elizabeth II will explain why the Queen was not merely the most famous woman in the world. She was one of history’s all-time greats.

‘If you read one biography on Elizabeth II, this is the one . . . magnificent’ – Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History

Robert Hardman is an internationally renowned writer and broadcaster, specializing in royalty and history for more than twenty- five years. He is the author of several international bestsellers. His previous book, Charles III, was Sunday Times number one for four weeks, and Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II was the 2022 Sunday Times Biography of the Year. Hardman has also written Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work; Our Queen; and Queen of the World.

He has interviewed the then Prince of Wales for several films, including the BBC’s Charles at 60; Prince William for his book Our Queen; the late Duke of Edinburgh for the BBC’s The Duke: In His Own Words; and the Princess Royal for ITV’s Anne: The Princess Royal at 70. Most recently, Hardman has written and co-produced the BBC films Charles III: The Coronation Year and Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, for which he interviewed a dozen members of the Royal Family.

A member of the BBC commentary team at all the major state occasions of recent times, including the Coronation of Charles III and the funerals of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Hardman is an award-winning journalist for the Daily Mail and lives in London.